Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of the most common monogenic diseases in humans with multiple phenotypic expressions that can manifest as both acute and chronic complications. Although described more than a century ago, challenges in comprehensive disease management and collaborative research on this disease are compounded by the complex molecular and clinical phenotypes of SCD, environmental and psychosocial factors, limited therapeutic options and ambiguous terminology. This ambiguous terminology has hampered the integration and interoperability of existing SCD knowledge, and SCD research translation. The SCD Ontology (SCDO), which is a community-driven integrative and universal knowledge representation system for SCD, overcomes this issue by providing a controlled vocabulary developed by a group of experts in both SCD and ontology design. SCDO is the first and most comprehensive standardized human- and machine-readable resource that unambiguously represents terminology and concepts about SCD for researchers, patients and clinicians. It is built around the central concept ‘hemoglobinopathy’, allowing inclusion of non-SCD haemoglobinopathies, such as thalassaemias, which may interfere with or influence SCD phenotypic manifestations. This collaboratively developed ontology constitutes a comprehensive knowledge management system and standardized terminology of various SCD-related factors. The SCDO will promote interoperability of different research datasets, facilitate seamless data sharing and collaborations, including meta-analyses within the SCD community, and support the development and curation of data-basing and clinical informatics in SCD.

The analysis of bacterial diversity in aquatic systems particularly in rivers, lakes, and streams can provide useful data on the effect of anthropogenic activities on such water bodies to humans and fishes. Idah River, the focal point of this study, is an offshoot of the two major Nigerian rivers characterized by observed human activities and pollution sources. Water samples were collected from four designated sites and assessed for their bacterial assemblages and structure, using PacBio Single-Molecule Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing technology. The full length of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced, and Amplicon Sequence Variants were generated using the DADA2 workflow optimised for PacBio long-read amplicons in Rstudio. A total of 8751 high-quality reads obtained were taxonomically classified as 24 phyla, 42 classes, 84 orders, 125 families, 156 genera, and 106 species. Taxonomical composition revealed Proteobacteria as the most abundant phyla across all sample sites. At the genera level, Azospira (57.03%) was the most dominant ASV in Docking Point A, while Acinetobacter (66.67%) was the most abundant ASV in Docking Point B. In Idah Axis Confluence, hgcl clade (65.66%) was the most prevalent ASV, whereas Holophaga (42.86%) was the most common ASV in Idah Axis Midstream. Genera analysis also revealed that 12.9% of the total ASVs were discovered across all sample sites. Among these were pathogenic bacteria, reducers, and degraders of domestic and animal wastes. Observed results provide evidence that sampled sites of Idah River are contaminated, most likely through constant human activities and thus, could have an impact on resident fishes as well. This study, therefore, agrees with a previous report from the river, which used standard microbial procedures. However, next-generation se-

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